Charts Of The Day: Greek Unemployment Hits Escape Velocity

It took one month for the 2013-2014 Greek medium-term unemployment target rate to be hit. The target rate? A grotesque, all time high 26%. Because as Elstat reports, this is what Greek unemployment already was in the month of September. Which means that at the time Greece was preparing its latest "Third Greek Bailout" projections in November, the rate was already well above the long-term target. Elstat also tells us that in September, the total number of actively employed Greek workers (including government) was a tiny 3,695,053. The number of persons unemployed: 1,295,203, while the inactive ranks swelled to 3,373,692. As a reminder, last month's 25.4% unemployment rate has been promptly surpassed in a few weeks. Finally, that powderkeg of conflict, youth unemployment, was a jawdropping 56.4%.

So without further ado, here are the charts that summarize this.

Total workers employed:

Total workers unemployed:

And the unemployment rate:

And yes, by returning to the Drachma, Greece would at least have some chance of curing the unfixable internal and external imbalances, which unless resolved, will send this rate into the stratosphere, and a far bigger chart will soon be needed.